By Emily Drooby
Despite an 8 p.m. curfew, there was unrest on the streets of New York City on June 2.
There was a tense scene between protesters and police near 25th Street and 6th Avenue. Near that area cameras caught looters hitting a pizza shop and a liquor store.
Further downtown, near Astor Place, a Starbucks and FedEx store were vandalized. Video shot the next day shows windows of both stores smashed in.
Still, officials said Tuesday night was better than the previous few nights, crediting the earlier curfew.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, “The protesters were mainly peaceful, the police officers had the resources and capacity to do their jobs, and the results last night were much, much different than the night before.”
However, there was a tense standoff at the Manhattan Bridge as protesters tried to pass over it from Brooklyn into Manhattan, despite the curfew being in effect. Police stopped the march. Mayor Bill de Blasio called it the right thing to do.
“We understand your feelings, we understand your desire to keep moving, but there is a curfew and we don’t want to arrest everyone, we want to let people go home peacefully and the way to do that is to go back across the bridge, and that’s what happened,” he said.
While officials say there was less violence and looting on Tuesday, top NYPD brass say it’s still something they’re actively fighting.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea tweeted out a video of what he says are bricks placed strategically around NYC. They were found in Brooklyn and Queens. He said they were likely stashed away by looters.
The vast majority of Floyd protest have been peaceful, and officials have made a point to place protesters and looters in two different categories.
Wednesday night will mark day two of the earlier curfew, which also bans car traffic below 96th street. Police will be out in full force. The Mayor says it will last through Sunday night.